|
|
 |
| |
Simon Loftus, the former chairman of Adnams, pictured in one of their wine shops. His 1985 book remains the liveliest and most acute analysis of the wine trade publised in the last 25 years |
The rise and rise of supermarket power
An interview with wine expert Simon Loftus raises new answers to some old questions
IT'S difficult in a column like this to ignore the supermarkets and big wine retailers. Their position is now so dominant that wine writing, particularly in the weekend lifestyle supplements, is fixed on them.
We need to move beyond this fixation. The alternative is to leave the choice of what we drink to be left to 20 or 30 wine buyers employed by the large companies and a small handful of international commentators.
It isn’t only the weekend supplements which are guilty of this narrowing of interest. Some of the most prestigious wine writers (including, for example, Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson) are equally to blame.
The focus of too much wine writing is on an encyclopaedic range of empirical information, but lacking any true structure. The volume of available information is daunting. But it relates overwhelmingly to individual producers and sellers, making it all but impossible to draw wider conclusions.
The last book to genuinely analyse the wine trade and offer serious predictions was, it is surprising to learn, published 22 years ago in 1985.
This was Simon Loftus’s ‘Anatomy of the Wine Trade’. (The book is out of print, but second hand copies can be found on the Amazon website.)
Loftus showed how the older off licences and independent wine merchants contributed to their own fall. This decline created a gap in the market into which the supermarkets promptly stepped. Once their foot was in the door, there was no stopping them! Already, in 1985, supermarkets sold 54 per cent of wine, anticipating that over the next ten to 15 years their turnover in wine would triple.
Loftus’ book remains unsurpassed as the liveliest and most perceptive analysis. But neither he nor anyone else has ever really followed up this account. It’s therefore interesting to examine his predictions and see how well they have turned out.
This made it appropriate to interview him.
Looking forward in 1985, Loftus foresaw “a new type of emporium”. This would be a wine warehouse, typically in large premises in the suburbs, selling quality food, cooking equipment, and books on wine and food to people who had moved on from the supermarkets and wanted better quality and personal service.
Simon Loftus stands by this analysis. However, he wasn’t producing a blueprint and changes which couldn’t have been foreseen shifted the course of his prediction. Part of this, as he rightly points out, is the growth of technology, with mail-order using credit and debit cards, and the advent of online buying and selling.
However, he still believes that food and drink retailing will converge. As a former director of the Suffolk brewer Adnams, Loftus points to their willingness to combine wine with kitchen ware and seasonal goods alongside their core business of brewing. In the near future some of their retail outlets will have cafes attached to them.
The other side of this picture is, of course, the supermarkets themselves.
Loftus believes that their share of wine has now reached a plateau.
Wine, as a result, becomes a smaller part of a larger picture.
Bigger profits are to be found by importing cheap clothing from sweatshops in south-east Asia. He feels that they are losing interest in wines. It’s clearly not difficult to see why.
Reading ‘Anatomy of the Wine Trade’, it comes as something of a shock to realise how early the supermarkets established their control. A full generation ago they accounted for over half of all wine sales in Britain.
The levelling-off of sales makes possible new developments. We believe that Loftus is right to link the selling of better quality food and wine. Whilst supermarket dominance remains a strong feature of retailing in the developed world, wine lovers can look forward to new directions and alternative sources.
It is to these that we will turn our attention in future columns.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
